Colossians 3:7

Still continuing on the “you are dead” theme, Paul said we used to practice certain things before.

All of us were destined for the wrath of God, except for the grace of God that was extended to us (1 Corinthians 15:10), calling us out of darkness into his marvelous life (1 Peter 2:9).

Here, Paul is arguing that there has to be a distinction between you before you met Christ and you afterward. Any message otherwise is missing the whole point of salvation.

• Jesus was sent to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

• Jesus did not define sin just theoretically; he said those who commit sins are slaves of sin (John 8:34).

• Jesus defines sin as a controlling influence that has you in its grip, and the only solution is him. He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)."

• We used to serve sin; now, we are meant to serve righteousness (Romans 6:17-18).

• Christianity is not an excuse for sin but a rescue from sin. Anything less and we are not obeying the truth (1 Peter 1:22); it means we have not yielded to the Father, who wants us to be partakers of his holiness (Hebrews 12:9-10).

God did not give up when sin entered the world in Genesis 3, and he did not ignore it. We know that because John the Baptist said Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:19). God made a provision to deal with sin once and for all through his son, Jesus Christ.

For something to be taken away means that it was present.

I presume that God had to WAIT to be seen as just in his judgment.

• Even though God is against sin from the outset, the full measure of his wrath against sin must be held back until all the hosts of heaven are on the same page and see that, truly, things have gotten so bad that judgment had to be meted out.

• We see what happened with the whole earth before the flood (Genesis 6:5-7)

• And also what happened before Sodom and Gomorrah went up in flames (Genesis 18-19).

• Now again, the patience of God is waiting (2 Peter 3:9-12).

• Assuredly, everything will be judged in a cosmic conflagration. This is not hypothetical or figurative; everything will vaporize in fire like what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah in a limited sense. And there is a counter promise of a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17).

• Now, God has not pulled that trigger of his wrath because he is “being patient toward you. He does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9-10).”

• We were even told that the patience of God was waiting in the time of Noah (1 Peter 3:20). While what we saw was God telling Noah to build a boat and to bring animals in twos, the bible says that it was the patience of God waiting, but people did not respond to come into the boat. Now, we do not have a physical boat, but rather a spiritual boat named Jesus. Noah preached through the boat, telling the people that there was a rescue from impending judgment, but no one believed him.

Anyone who enters the boat to escape from God's judgment has figuratively died inside the boat and later emerged into a new life, again in a figure. The boat was, in a sense, hit by God's wrath instead of those who were in the boat, just as Christ tasted death for us (Hebrews 2:9).

As the boat settled on a mount, so we have been raised up into the heavenly places, and our lives are now in Christ (Ephesians 2:6-7).

• There is a whole world of difference between the people inside Noah's boat and the people outside.

• Those inside were there because they were born by Noah, and those connected to Noah through them.

• The ones who would be saved from the impending judgment are those who are born from above and those connected to Christ through their preaching.

Repentance is now being preached in the name of Jesus (Luke 24:46-47); hence, people are coming from a life of bondage to sexual sin to the freedom of holiness (Romans 6:22).

Paul wants the readers to know that they are different now. According to the focus verse, Christ makes a difference, not just “spiritually” but in the way we live our lives.

And Paul is defining Christianity in a negative way— by what you are not supposed to be known for. And that is important. He defines them by what they should stop doing.

Paul drives to the core of the issue—sin—and that Christ is the only solution, dealing with the seed of greed, shameful passion, and evil desire (see previous verse).

• Paul said they had come out of them (2 Corinthians 6:17).

• Jesus said he had come to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32),

• When Zacchaeus repented from his greed, Jesus did not say it did not matter; he gave it a label. He said today, salvation has come to this house (Luke 19:1-10).